Fate: digital battle
by masamune11
Summary: Enzan is bored, while Netto is chased by his own bad luck. What comes over the two are something much more complicated: The Holy Grail War.
1. Battle Invitation and Discount?

Fate/digital battle

By: shinigami-no-elie

A crossover anime of Fate/stay night and Rockman.exe…

Disclaimer: Fate projects and Rockman.exe do not belong to me…

Summary: 5 years after the damnation of the Cyber Beasts, Hikari Netto had been through several unlucky events, until he met a part-time merchant giving a huge discount for a battle chip he had searched all over. Ijuuin Enzan realized his life had been rather dull, until a mysterious knight-like navi showed up, challenging him. They don't know that all of these events will not only reveal their destiny as extraordinary Net-Saviors—but skillful magicians as well.

A/N: BTW, I took the timeline from the comics, since I haven't watched the anime versions… have to stay put till the stock arrives… sighs I don't know what comes over me to write this fanfiction…

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**Part I**

**Battle Invitation and… Discount?**

8.00am

The IPC Vice-President office

Enzan sighed.

Ijuuin Enzan had never sighed behind his desk full of papers need to be signed for the sake of the company. For some reason, he did and that brought questions to Blues, who appeared to be in the corner of the desktop Enzan used. Blues kept observing his unusual master's behavior, which later become concerned after Enzan buried down his head onto piles of papers.

Blues could take no longer silence. "Enzan-sama, are you feeling fine?" for Blues to be concerned is something worth noted in the history book. The asked operator lifted his head up with rather dull and bored look plastered on his face. Enzan looked at the navi for a brief moment and buried his head, not answering the red-tone navi's question.

If Blues' eyebrows were visible right that moment, they should be quirking at his master's behavior. Before Blues could ask anything, Enzan had already sighed again and lifted his head up, this time using both of his hand to hold up his head. "I am not really sure, Blues…" He said rather softly—something he thought he was not capable at all. His eyes wondered blankly throughout his office room, until his eyes caught on the metropolitan view from the glass window. He slowly stood and strolled over to the window, gazing blankly at the Densan City view.

"I'm bored…" Enzan said bluntly. Blues heard his operator and turned unsure. Even Blues almost suspected that the one standing there must have been an impostor—Enzan would _never_ be bored even to be buried under the piles of papers.

Okay, maybe he would…

But for Enzan to say things bluntly like that, Blues never imagined that coming from his master's mouth. Blues wanted to speak up, but something in his programming told him to silence off and observe his master's condition again, thinking the right steps to do.

Enzan noticed the silence—he wouldn't mind that, but usually, at this time Blues would ask again if Enzan was alright. "Blues…?" Enzan asked quietly as he turned to his desk, noticing the red-toned navi was thinking of whatever he was thinking in the corner of his desktop. Enzan sighed again, for the 3rd time today. This drew Blues out from his thought, and realized that his master had been seated again.

Now Blues was worried…

"Does something bother you, Enzan-sama?" Blues asked in straight voice, although the hint of worry was faintly tainting the words. Enzan stared at the navi and rolled his eyes.

"Actually, no…" Enzan said. But before Blues could ask more, Enzan followed his statement. "But I was hoping something interesting would turn up today…"

Blues was quiet. "But nothing happened, sir…"

Enzan yawned. "I knew that… it's been so long since our last net battle, Blues. The worthy one… I just wished Hikari and Rockman are here so that we could battle them, again…"

"But they're out of the country recently, sir…" Blues said matter-of-factly. Enzan gave the navi the I-know-that-so-don't-bother-saying-it-again look. Blues went silent. "My apologies, sir…"

Enzan sighed again and returned to work. He picked the piles one by one, signing each and every one of them. As he scanned down one paper to the end of the page, he buried down his head again.

For the time being he just wished to get out from the mountainous piles of papers he needed to sign…

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8.00am

Netopia Square

Apparently, The Hikaris were supposed to have their holiday fun and soothing. Yet, as if bound to the curse of calling trouble anywhere, Netto's stroll over the square had not been fun, at all. Netto had yet strolled over the Netopia Square and then some goons showed up, trying to bully the brownish-haired teenage. Poor the goons as Netto gracefully avoided all their attacks and kicked them on the back. Netto only ran and arrived on a telephone booth. He saw a port there, and grinned.

"Let's browse the internet, Rock. It's been a while!" Netto said as he gleefully pulled out the jack and ready to go.

"Sure thing…" Rockman said lazily, drawing attention of his netOP.

Netto blinked. "Something's wrong, Rockman??"

Rockman smiled and… yawned. "Nothing Netto-kun… It's just that, I'm feeling rather sleepy… anyway, I'm fine… Where are we going now?"

Netto was rather suspicious, as hearing the word 'sleepy' from the blue navi had been rather… odd. Rockman used to be very active. 'He could be sleepy once in a while…' "You sure you want to do this? It seemed you're tired…"

"I am fine, Netto-kun… Let's jack in!"

"If you said so…" Netto said as he jacked in. "Jack in! Rockman.EXE transmission!!"

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"How are things there, Rockman?"

Rockman strolled over the Netopia Net server. The square was full with many kinds of navis. Even Rockman couldn't help but staring in awe as many navis went here and there, some jacking in and out. Net Dealers seemed to have their supplies sold out thanks to the crowded. "It is VERY crowded here, Netto-kun." Rockman said, still gaping in awe of the number of Net-Navis present.

Rockman walked along the road for sightseeing, knowing that Netto would love to know which chips to buy in the net. Straightly, Rockman went to the Net Dealer and scrolled the list of available chip.

"Netto-kun, looks like they only have TimeBomb2 for the time being. Hmm, it seemed they haven't restocked other chips yet. What about it?" Rockman asked his operator. Netto only heard the word "TimeBomb2" and nothing else as he exclaimed happily. "A TimeBomb2!! How much is it!"

Rockman was rather over his operator and asked for the price. It took him 10 seconds to realize the price was going to throw all hopes Netto could muster. "Uh, Netto-kun…"

"How much is it, Rockman!! Tell me!" Netto asked eagerly like a child wanting to have some prize. Netto stared hard at the blue navi which made him more uncomfortable each and every second.

"Err… It's 30,000 zennys for each…"

The world seemed to stop…

"WHAT!! 30,000 zennys for a lousy TimeBomb2!! That's just insane!!" netto screamed on the PET screen, making Rockman closed his ears with both of his hands. "Even A pack of Spreaders doesn't cost THAT much!"

"Actually, sire… I could give you 75 discount if you're willing to help me…"

Rockman and Netto turned to the Net Dealer, who appeared to be no ordinary Normal navi, but customized navi with short gray hair and red eyes, with no helmet on but his head headphones. He wore somewhat jet black war armor with some wavy motives on his left side and red coat down to his feet. His arms and legs are covered jet black, white-lined suit. His navi mark lied on his chest—like an asterisk inside the circle, with each side touching the side of the circle.

Netto blinked at the navi's statement. "That makes it… 7,500 zennys… FOR SURE!" the net dealer nodded at the happy statement of the boy.

"Yup, and only a single favor to ask. What do you say?"

"Netto-kun…" Rockman was about to object, but his operator had gone rather straight away nodding in agreement. Somehow, he thought Netto was easy to be bribed, but this? Okay, maybe in the same circumstances, Rockman would anyway. Rockman could only sigh and get on with the now-to-be-done task.

"I am expecting a new shipping of battle chips to arrive today." At the word "battle chips", Rockman turned his head to the Net dealer and listened as eagerly as his Op did. Having your hand to touch the first-arriving battle chips would be better remembered. "I want you to go to the Harbor1 area and gave this note…" the navi went still for a second and uploaded a file onto his palm. He gave it to Rockman. Rockman eyed the note first. But he could only quirked his eyebrows bewildered of the crest scribbled there—just a blue glowing streak crossing everywhere.

"…to the ship guard. He'll know what to do... Off you go now!" the navi said finally as he pushed the blue navi away from his store and watched him leave, pouting at how he was treated. Rockman turned left and disappeared from his view. Seconds later, his operator contacted him, in stern manner.

"How is it, Archer…? Have you given him the task?" a woman spoke to her navi. The asked navi, Archer.EXE, nodded as he looked to his raven-haired operator. She had long black hair, tied with in 2 ponytails. Her attire was invisible, since the screen only showed her face only.

"It's all green, Rin. Speaking of which, you really are going to pay for the rest of 22,500 zennys, right? We're just doing our part-time job here… the store is not ours…"

Tohsaka Rin's face went blank and browsed for her bank account…

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"Yatta…"

Enzan exclaimed thankfully at his now-finished jobs. Next to him, his pet was lying on the desk, plugged to the computer. At least now he could stretch his hands and legs out of boredom and surfed for the Internet. He sighed in relief and browse on his windows. Blues was in his sleeping mode in the corner of his desktop. Enzan was about to wake him up, yet he didn't as he knew, so long as he got his computer to browse internet with, there's no need for Blues to surf for him. After all, his navi should be tired from helping him sorting all document files in his computer.

He searched for anything interesting, but found none except the virus update and a report about permanent bug. However, he didn't pay it much mind as his boredom taking influence over him again. He knew there's nothing to relieve his boredom except for a net-battle.

Add that words—a WORTHY net-battle…

He might be an official, but and official without orders would make him more to be the vice-president of the IPC. And Enzan had resented that fact for a long time…

There's a small beep from his desktop. Enzan's eyes quickly went to Blues and—as he expected—saw Blues already 'waking up' from his sleep mode.

"A mail, Enzan-sama… Verifying code…" Blues paused for at least 4 seconds. Enzan blinked at the sudden silence and worried that Blues was crashing. No matter how little possible that would turn out, there's still a chance, since Blues.EXE is still data no matter what.

"Blues…?"

"It's an anonymous mail, sir…"

Enzan's left eyebrow rose in bewilderment as he heard the statement. 'Who would have e-mailed me… _masaka_, is it the permanent bug?'

Blues hadn't heard anything from his master, yet he still spoke, asking for the next order. "Would you like me to dispose or open the mail, Enzan-sama?"

Enzan stared at the red-toned navi until curiosity took over as he ordered, "Open the mail…"

"Yes, sir…" blues paused, again, and that made Enzan worried to death that if the mail was really a permanent bug. However, his worry vanished as he heard his navi moved again. "It's a challenge for net-battle, sir… and for the looks of it, this mail might have been sent from a hacker… the IP is blocked and can not be traced…"

'Hacker?' Enzan thought silently. Hackers were bound to be found in Undernet—a dangerous area even the officials couldn't handle. Even a hacker's navi only showed up once in while; for a navi to go virus-busting in that area, the operator should be very skillful. With hackers as the 'Under'-Programmer, some said the Undernet had been their labs for years. "Take it to the screen so that I could read it myself." Enzan ordered.

"Yes, sir…" Blues nodded and make the message visible to the screen. Enzan read the mail, wide-eyed.

_To: Ijuuin Enzan, Vice-President of the IPC, Official Net-Battler_

_From: Anonymous_

_Come alone to the Undernet3 area today at 10.30am. I wish to have net-battle… and a talk. Don't bother to come with other people, or I would mess with your privacy. Trust me, having your 'identity' discovered is the last thing you want me to do._

_N/B: this message is permanently set in your hard disk as a file and it can't be deleted unless you've gotten yourself the key for it (which I was holding right now). Don't bother to try Science Lab. This is a level V permanent bug, and the bug will grow and corrupt important data file on your desktop. Even the Science Lab can do nothing. Heh, even after 4 days and they hadn't gotten any clue on this bug. Man, I should say the Science Lab is getting slower…_

Enzan face turned grim. 'Blackmailed… these hackers have no honor over anything, don't they?' Enzan thought as his eyes wandered to the red-tone navi residing on the corner of his desktop. "Blues, time." Enzan gritted his teeth. No way in hell he would let all his hard work today crumbled. He wouldn't want to get through the same bored day, again; not now that is. And if to prevent that is by net-battling, he would gladly accept that. 'The best medicine to my current boredom after all…'

"10.15am, sir." Blues said as he readied himself to go. Enzan nodded as he operated throughout his computer.

"Let's see if we can get into the Undernet area in, let's say, 10 minutes…?"

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**Harbor1 Area**

Rockman did what the Net dealer told him to and gave the note to the Ship guard. However, they were turned to another problem as the ship guard said that the lock for the shipment had been turned to viruses. Until now, there is no one capable of removing them.

"I'm very sorry sir, but it seems there's some sort of malfunction in the lock. Until it is fixed, I'm afraid you can't have the shipment just yet."

"No way… We are letting our 75 discount away! ARGGH!" Netto whined as he scratched his head out of fury. Rockman sighed and faced his operator.

"Netto-kun, calm down. We could help them. Let's try virus-busting these viruses and get the wares out." Rockman said calmly to his NetOp. After succeeding, Rockman turned back to the Ship Guard. "So, where are the wares, sir?"

The ship guard pointed a huge cargo ship not too far away, painted with black and blood red. Streaks of blue paint were visible only for the top boxes. As for the lower boxes was classically painted woody brown. "Your wares would be inside there marked with the same crest as the one in the note. However, please be cautious that the malfunctioned lock in door closing the storeroom is highly electrocuted because of the virus."

"We'll just have to beat the virus, right?" Rockman asked for confirmation. The ship guard nodded. With that, Rockman bowed thankfully and rushed towards the ship.

"…Rockman, did he say the door was electrocuted?" Netto asked worriedly. Rockman blinked at how uneasy his twin is. "Yeah, he did say so… what's the matter, Netto-kun?"

Netto was not only busy with watching over his Net Navi, but also some battle chips from his backpack. He was searching for any battle chips strong against thunder, yet…

"Shoot! I don't bring the Gaia sword!" Netto exclaimed so loudly that Rockman tripped his legs, just for suddenly hearing the brownish-haired operator. Netto skimmed down his cards and figured that there are only 3 leaf-based battle chips he currently carried. "More bad news… there are only 3 leaf-based chips to use later on. The rests are normal."

Rockman rolled his eyes and smirked. "I wouldn't be surprised, knowing if you're the one to operate me, 3 chips would be more enough than to complete this task." Rockman said as he kept running to cargo ship and jumped on to it.

"Heh… thanks for the support, bro… That must be the door, Rock."

Rockman looked at the steel door to the storeroom—it's not really a grand gate, or anything but simple ordinary door, except for the spark charges flowing rapidly, trying to electrocute anything in contact with. "Yeah, that must be it…"

Netto blinked. For some reason, Rockman said it to be—as if—uninterested to the door. But maybe his mind was playing with him, as Rockman was far more interested enough to step forward and looked on to the steel door and examined it closely.

Rockman was examining the steel door and jerked back as he saw some data flew over his head from the door. Acting on instinct, he simply took the data which hovered and he analyzed it rather unaware of what he's doing. He found nothing even after analyzing the worn-out part of the door data, however…

Rockman realized split seconds later that a buggy file jumped towards him from the worn-out data. Rockman reflexively jumped away as the buggy-file turned into which divided into 3 viruses. The viruses were all jelly like and black. Somewhat, he felt something very evil from the viruses itself.

"Netto-kun!!" Rockman exclaimed as he dodged one of the virus attack.

"I'm on it! Battle Operation set! StepSword!" Netto yelled as he downloaded the StepSword chip. Rockman quickly used the chip and step forward, slashing one of the viruses. To his surprise, the virus remained alive despite the fact it had been slashed. "Netto-kun!! It's not working!!" Rockman screamed as he dodged another attack and tried to shoot them with his Rock buster. However, instead of hitting at least one of them, the Rock buster missed them completely.

"Let's try others! TreeBomb3 slot in!!" Netto yelled as he downloaded the chip. Rockman felt his power welling up on his arm. His right hand was glowing with green light, revealing a green bomb. Ever so quickly, he threw it to the viruses. The bomb explodes with a big smoke. As it cleared up, Rockman could see the viruses were bound to the ground by the rising plants produced by the chips. Rockman sighed in relief and aimed the Rock buster to the viruses, eliminating each and every one of them with each shot. As the viruses were deleted, the steel door remained rigid and still.

"What was that all about…?" Rockman whispered under his breath. The viruses had scared him—true they're just viruses. But somehow, those viruses were different. Viruses don't radiate a dark aura around them, threatening to taint him, with something very scary and nerve-wrecking. No… Viruses usually tried to delete things. So what's the thing attacking him then?

"Rockman, analyze for any damages." Netto said sternly. He was worried, after all Rockman was once his twin and they still share the same bond. It's pretty obvious for him to feel the anxiety—or shock—of his brother. Netto could see Rockman nodded and went still for analysis through out the screen. Few seconds later, the green eyes flickered.

"Fortunately, no damages…" Rockman said briefly. Hearing that, Netto sighed relieved, not noticing the breath he'd been holding. "Still, what was that thing…?"

"They're plain, simple viruses trying to turn you evil… the simplest explanation for someone like you without confusing you…"

Rockman turned to the source of the voice. His eyes widened in surprise as he could see the same navi they met on the store sitting on the cargo. "You're that Net Dealer!!"

The gray-haired navi, namely Archer.EXE, smirked as he jumped down. "Actually, I'm not really the Net Dealer. I'm just taking part-time job. And since you've taken much time only to retrieve the shipment, I thought I could see how well you do… Seeing that viruses around, I don't think things have gone well…" his smirk turned to frown as he approached the remaining bits of data the viruses left. "Rin, you might want to upload the data."

"Of course, Archer. You know I'll need the sample. Start uploading now…" a raven-haired woman showed up from the screen behind him. Archer picked up the remaining pieces of data and remained still. Few seconds later, Archer muttered under his breath. "…Done."

"Just who are you people…? First second, you said that you're a part-time Net Dealer. But now, you're acting as if you're a scientist… Oh, and Netto was still hoping to get the discount…"

Archer lifted an eyebrow and turned to the blue navi. He was rather calm at time; however his Operator didn't seem to be happy at all after the blue navi talked.

"Actually, we—" before archer could talk for more, Rin gave him the let-me-talk-instead look in a death-glare way. Archer remained silent, even in the most uncomfortable way.

"Ehm… Firstly little navi, it's not appropriate for you to know us before you even introduced yourself and your Operator… Mind your manners when talking, please…" the woman said smugly as she lectured the blue navi. Archer could only shake his head disbelievingly at his Operator.

'This woman really CARED about whole formality things… oh well; we also need bit decency…' Netto silently thought. "I am Hikari Netto, Rockman.EXE Operator. Nice to meet you!"

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"Good gracious…"

Blues stood on the entrance to the Undernet dumbfounded by the view. Thousands of dead viruses AKA error files piled up everywhere as far as he could see. Killing a hundred viruses would be a snippet, but to kill a thousand?

"It seemed there's mass virus-extermination approximately 120 seconds ago, Enzan-sama…" Blues said, trying to keep his voice straight from awe and bewilderment. Somehow, he failed but Enzan didn't really notice it. Enzan's head was now filled with Blues' words.

'There has not been any evidence of any virus-exterminator capable of doing this less than 10 minutes… to actually think that this had been done for only 2 minutes…' Enzan thought silently as he reached for the morning coffee he'd gotten a minute ago. He sipped the coffee grimly, mind racing with all that had happened.

"Enzan-sama, should we proceed?" Blues asked his Operator, rather unsure if it's okay for Enzan. Enzan's mind was still racing but he nodded at Blues in a confirmation. Blues nodded back and went through the gate.

As Blues passed the gate, he felt strange—as though there's something deep inside the Undernet waiting for them. Knowing that those thoughts would disrupt his reflexive act later, he pushed out the thoughts and started walking.

After 3 minutes of walking without encountering any single foe, Blues arrived at the meeting place. However, as seconds turned to minutes, Blues became rather unsure. "Something is really fishy, Enzan-sama…"

Enzan gritted his teeth as he viewed the area. "I notice that very well…" Enzan opened the mail again, to check the mail, whether they got the right place. Enzan sighed. He got the place right, so where is the navi?

"I see… you've arrived 5 minutes earlier, Blues."

Blues turned to the source of the voice, sword lifted up in reflex. At the view, he lowered his sword as he saw a white-toned navi dressed in knight's armor designed for woman of the Middle Ages. However, her helmet was nowhere covering her face, as it covered upper part of his head, leaving strands of blonde hair waving on both of her side. Blonde hair was tied to the back of her head. Metallic wings sprang diagonally upwards from the side of her helmet. Sparkling blue eyes revealed itself behind those eyelids—a stern and strong demeanor residing in the character. Her hand was gripping a golden sword—her glory.

"Allow me to introduce myself…" the voice was cold and straight. "I'm Saber.EXE…" she held the sword in front of her. "…and I wished to fight you, O mighty warrior."

**To be Continued**

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N/B: I actually did this story! Woooohoooo! It's been a while!! Oh, if it's good, I'll update it… yet again, if others think this crappy… I might not be able to update this fic anymore. It all depends on you readers! X3. In any case, have fun reading! Waiting for reviews! LOL


	2. The Sword in the Stone

Fate/digital battle

By: shinigami-no-elie

A crossover anime of Fate/stay night and Rockman.exe…

Disclaimer: Fate projects and Rockman.exe do not belong to me. Any similarities of plot or OC names are purely coincidental. And trust me, the idea of creating this whole fan fiction just popped out in my head…

Summary: 5 years after the damnation of the Cyber Beasts, Hikari Netto had been through several unlucky events, until he met a part-time merchant giving a huge discount for a battle chip he had searched all over. Ijuuin Enzan realized his life had been rather dull, until a mysterious knight-like navi showed up, challenging him. They don't know that all of these events will only lead to something more complicated—The Holy Grail War.

A/N: yawn chapter 2 is up, which you are reading right now… anyhow, do review…

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**Part II**

**The Sword in the Stone**

10.25am

Undernet3 area

"Where's your operator?"

Saber.EXE quirked an eyebrow as she heard him talked. Lifting her golden sword, she eyed the screen behind Blues, revealing a pissed Enzan. It was Enzan who spoke, and Saber.EXE already hated his attitude.

"I'm an auto-navi… I don't have any operator." Saber said with her eyes as cold as stone. Her tone was unwavering and her grip tightened over the golden sword. "I'm here on Serenade's request."

Enzan lifted an eyebrow as he heard the King's name. The thought about the virus residing in his desktop had disappeared just because of the name of one single navi. "One thing for sure, that Serenade never asked favor to any person. Who the hell are you?" Enzan asked coldly as he readied the Muramasa battle chip. Blues readied his stance as the Muramasa materialized on his hand, left foot in front to maximize his speed.

Blues could see, even just a little—Saber's eyes softened over the King's name. But they turned as hard as before almost immediately. Sword still tight in her hand, he could not see her trembling. 'She's good…'

"I told you once…" Saber said as she prepared to charge. She focused her power to her feet. "I'm Saber.EXE, and I'm here to test you…" She dashed ever-so-quickly and warped behind the red-tone navi. "…under Serenade's request!!" she screeched and clashed her sword. Blues had anticipated this move for sometimes, although he hadn't realized her speed would be very astounding. Reflexively, Blues drew the Muramasa out of its scabbard, did a 180-degree spun, and blocked the golden sword. Of course Blues still had plans under his sleeve, as he quickly dodged under the golden sword's pressure and swiped down his Muramasa for a counter hit.

Saber gritted her teeth as she withdrew and jumped back to avoid the counter. Still gripping her sword, she smirked, "This could have been more exciting than I thought…." She took her charging stance again, but this time she doubled her power focused on her feet. In a flash, she dashed again, 5 times faster than before.

"What the—" before Blues could even finished his sentence, Saber had appeared nearly in front of him with her sword going sideswipe for his head. Quickly, Blues put the Muramasa on his side for blocking the incoming blow. The swords hit each other and caused an explosion. However, Blues was sent reeling because of the poor defense he had made.

"Blues!" Enzan screamed as he saw his navi knelt down. "Any damages!"

Blues slowly went to his feet. "Negative sire…" He panted. 'She went faster… 5 times faster…' Blues thought. He smirked at the thought how powerful the navi in front of him. "Enzan-sama, I think we should get serious."

Enzan glared at his navi and Saber respectively. "Is she really that good, Blues?"

"Positive. She might be even stronger than Netto-san." Blues replied quietly. Enzan glared the knight-like navi disbelievingly, and returned to the red-toned navi. "Full Synchro, Blues…"

"Understood…" Blues obeyed as he felt his operator next to him—merging with him, fighting with him—both ready to attack with their very best. To Saber's eyes, they were doing nothing—and she failed to realize the screen behind Blues had gone blank.

"Don't tell me that you've given your best… Serenade's just wasting his time on a weak navi and his operator…" Saber snickered mockingly as she saw the navi remained still. Seconds later even after no reaction, Saber grew suspicious. Before she could step closer to the red-toned navi…

"You might want to take that back…"

"!!" Saber only glanced at her back as she saw Blues, Muramasa in his hand, ready to strike her down. Blues smirked as he stroked her down. Lifelessly, she fell ungracefully, eyes still wide-opened.

"…" Blues saw it happened, but he seemed unsurprised as the navi fell and… simply vanished into thin air. He redrew the Muramasa and scowled, "after-images…"

"Correct…" Saber exclaimed silently. By then, she was actually standing 10m away from the sword-based navi. Her sword was held down but still in her strong grip. "From your look, I guess you could do the same technique…" Saber continued as she held her sword high. "I guess Serenade gave the Legendary Sword to the right person…" She tripled the actual power for her feet, ready to dash again. For some reason, she could think of no other technique than charging. Blues and Enzan saw this and prepared their selves. There is a flash of light and both of them clashed their swords to each other.

For sometimes, they clashed swords at each other, not landing any damaging blow. After a while, they stopped. Panting, Blues knelt down even though he had no injuries. 'She's fast…' Blues thought silently as he looked at the now-panting knight-like navi.

"_I must agree with that… however, we're not going to lose either…"_ Enzan said throughout their link. Blues nodded at his master's statement as he stood on his ground. Readying his might-be final stance, Blues took a deep breath and readied his Muramasa to go tripled.

Across the battlefield, Saber smirked as blue aura gathered around her and her sword. "To honor my foe, I must give him all I got!" she gripped her sword tighter than before and ready to swing the final blow. Blues saw this coming and tried to predict what will happen, yet…

'An explosion in such scale would be…' Blues turned grim at the thought. 'No… that should not happen…' the Muramasa glowed briefly, as if resonating to the golden sword Saber held onto. Blues could only bet on whatever the Muramasa was trying to do.

The aura concentrating on the golden sword became concentrated to the maximum capacity it could take. Knowing that the power is enough, Saber smiled in victory. She swung her sword and yelled her glorified skill—the only skill for her, and only her. "EXCALIBUR!"

As she swung her sword, golden cross came out, jetting through towards the red-toned navi. Enzan was speechless as the attack approached, and hadn't realized that Blues had pushed him away. _"What!!"_

"I'm so sorry, Enzan-sama…" Blue said finally as he knew, he alone was enough to be rid from the attack. He knew the knight's power had been this strong—maybe as strong as the King, but he didn't care. The last thing he wants to see was a fatally wounded Enzan, because of his lacking power.

Within Blues, his master's conscience had begun to drift away. Enzan was bewildered at how easy the navi pushed him away, just like that. Eyes widened as he heard the navi said his apology. _"Idiot! You won't stand your ground against her, alone!!"_ he could see Blues smirked from the corner of his lips, before he was engulfed in the golden blast, Muramasa in his hand, blocking the attack.

Enzan watch him eyes-widened. He jerked back—in the real world—as he returned to his self, and quickly scanned the monitor in front of him. Fist balled as he saw the golden attack had not finished… yet. Horrified, he hit his desk hard out of frustration. "BLUES!"

The attack settled, revealing a panting, torn-tattered Blues with his Muramasa blocking the attack. Enzan lied down on his chair, speechless and glad. He'd never known someone as strong as the knight-navi would exist, excluding Bass and Serenade. 'Almost as strong as Bass… but then again, I should not be shocked… this is the Under Net…' Enzan thought cold and pissed. His eyes rolled back to Blues. He was silent at first and glad Blues survived the attack, but what comes after the two was never suspected to happen. Dumb-struck and still panting for air, Blues eyed the sword he was bestowed.

The Muramasa was broken…

Saber smirked pleased as her golden sword turned to dust…

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"I'm Tohsaka Rin, Archer's operator. Pleased to meet you..." The girl said from the screen behind archer. She looked stern and lazy at the same time seeing the blue navi. "And I've known you, of course. You're Hikari Netto, the one boy who saved the world several times, son of Yuuichiro Hikari, grandchild of Tadashi Hikari, Currently on holiday with the rest of the Hikaris. "

Archer chuckled slightly as he saw the confused look over both the operator and the navi. He also had expected the two to back off a bit, eyes shone in suspicion. "How do you know us that well…?"

Rin only sighed. "Everybody knows the boy who saved the world… Besides, I'm still an official…" she took a cup of green tea near her and sipped it. Archer scowled as he heard the little detail about the 'official'.

"You are…?" Netto asked unsure. He had almost readied his cannons battle chips for program advance, in case Archer tried anything suspicious, and dangerous.

"I am…" Rin said again as she showed her Official Net-Battler ID card. She put it aside and talked again. "Well, so much for the introduction… after all, I can't log in to the net forever. And since you've done your parts, I guess I really should give you the chip…"

Netto was grinning broadly whilst Rockman smiled happily, waiting for their prize. "Yet… I've got the chip sold out already…"

Silence…

"WHAT!!" Netto cried loudly as he heard those ironic words. "I THOUGHT THE CHIP WASN'T RESERVED!!"

Rin shrugged. "It was, 3 days ago… the person asked for the chips while you were gone…" She could see the operator turned chibi-like. "However, since I'm not a heartless cold-blooded bastard who doesn't reward anything over work, I'll give you this as a reward…" Rin downloaded a chip onto the red-caped navi. Archer went still.

"…download complete… Processing... Done…" Archer blankly said. A chip materialized right in front of him. The chip glowed as it materialized. After finishing the process, Archer grabbed the chip. "KanshouBakuya K (1)… only one chip of this kind is available in the world. However, the time you take this chip, you will also have to enter a competition…"

Netto blinked. He's not against having a competition, for a rare chip. He quietly asked, "What kind of competition?"

Rin's eyes turned cold. "The Holy Grail War…"

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"I'm astounded, warrior. I've never wanted to use the Excalibur using a tracing sword, but you pushed me to…" Saber said. Her eyes closed peacefully and gladly as she eyed her hands, which is now—surprisingly—slightly tattered in data. "Not only that, you've managed to reflect it back, straight to my hand at the cost of the sword. You've fought well, and fulfill your destiny… Now that the Muramasa had broken, what'll you do O mighty warrior?"

Blues gritted his teeth as he gripped the Muramasa hilt tightly. Unwilling, he put the sword away, together with the broken blade. 'She's aiming for the destruction of the blade after all…' Blues thought way out-pissed. Blues summoned his Long Sword. "I'll fight you without it then…"

"But Saber had lost her blade, so there's nothing to battle for anymore…"

Blues quickly spun around to the voice, and found a screen behind Saber.EXE. There, a red-haired operator stood, eyes as calm as the sea, yet raging like a firestorm. Brown eyes stared from the back of the blonde knight-like navi. His lips tugged a smile—more like a smirk of satisfactory.

Saber had noticed him almost immediately and spun to the boy. "What in the world are you thinking, Shiro!" Screamed a frustrated Saber and made the asked boy jumped off his chair in fear. 3 seconds later, the red-haired teen showed up again, still sweat-dropping over the navi's act.

"Etto, even though you had told me to stay put, I can't actually put aside the battle between my navi and Blues… besides, I was about to send you another copy of Excalibur chip, in case the old one was destroyed, either by your magnificent swordsmanship or simply broken by the enemies…" Shiro smiled, not to his notice that Saber was having a deep red shade over her face.

"I'm not so careless that I let people destroyed the tracing blade! Besides, those who match the Excalibur are worthy enough to wield it. And Blues has everything to wield it! I was once a king, chosen by the Holy Sword!!" Saber reasoned—more like retorted. Shiro shook his head, half way disapprovingly.

"That's the problem. It's not us who select the King. It's Excalibur, and there's only one way to find out…" Emiya Shiro stared blankly at the dual-haired operator, who was glaring right at them, feeling very unnoticeable as Shiro and Saber.EXE talked all the way. "Ijuuin Enzan, I was hoping for you and Blues to come with us…" Shiro said calmly.

Enzan lifted an eyebrow disbelievingly. The red-haired teen was being very blunt at that very moment. "What if we don't?" Enzan gave him an over-my-dead-body look. Shiro saw this and only smirked. The red-haired teen lifted up disc—plain silvery disc.

"Actually, you will have to, since now I'm the only key for saving your data file." Shiro grinned as he played the disc in his fingers. Enzan gritted his teeth, eyes-widened as he saw the seemingly-innocent disc. "This is the anti-bug of the permanent bug spreading in your computer. It's my original design so nobody had been able to copy it, not even Science Lab had asked me to associate. Aren't they high in their pride…?"

"In short, with a snap, I could end up your whole job as a vice-President… and really, I don't want to make another copy. Let's just wait for the Science Lab if this one is broken, okay?" Shiro grinned evilly.

Enzan was straightly dumb-struck. He sighed as he knew he had no other choice but to play along. "Fine… what should I do, Mr.…?"

"Shiro. Emiya Shiro…"

Enzan lifted an eyebrow. "Of course… you're the Under Net #1 Hacker. Now, what possibly do you have in mind after you've infected my entire data file inside the desktop and blackmailing me like that? And what's with this navi and you! Shouldn't she be an auto-navi!!?" Enzan nearly yelled, which cause the red-haired to jump off again in reflex. Saber sighed at the red-haired teen behavior.

Slowly, Shiro peeked up behind his chair, seeing a calmed Enzan. He coughed at first. "I'm here on Serenade's request. He wanted you to have the Excalibur sword… well, he said in case the Muramasa became 'unusable' anymore..." he said. "Oh, and Saber is a semi-auto navi. Her Operator is still me, but she could decide what to do when she's patrolling along the Undernet—that is when I'm not operating her."

Saber shook her head at how long Shiro had been explaining things. "Shiro, I thought you haven't finished the project yet…" Saber pouted. Shiro only smirked at his Navi's behavior.

"I haven't. I leave it to you then, Saber. Oh, almost forgot…" Shiro said as he downloaded a chip and the anti-bug file to the navi's database. Saber eyed her hands as another golden sword materialized in her hand, similar to what she had had. "…that's only the copy. Don't be reckless with that…" Shiro said as he eyed the dual-haired operator. "You'll get the anti-bug program after Blues tries taking the Excalibur. See you all later then…" Shiro grinned as he logged out, leaving only them in the depth of Undernet.

Saber sighed as he eyed the red-toned navi. "You've heard him. You're getting the anti-bug IF you agree with the condition. Now should we proceed?"

Blues eyed his operator and saw him sighed disbelievingly. He saw Enzan nodded in agreement, even though it was as hard as admitting defeat. Saber saw this and turned her back.

"Follow me…"

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"I have to participate in the Holy Grail War?" Netto blinked and had no idea on whatsoever the tournament is—and how cold and blank the black-haired girl said it. "It's some kind of tournament, right?"

Rin nodded. "Sort of… If you win, you will receive a special prize…" she said. "However, the prize itself is very—" before she could finish her talk, Archer had already shot a death glare at his own operator. Rin challenged back and realized that she's off the topic. And so, she sighed to stop her speech. "Anyway, you'll get special prize. Oh, no backing out once you agrees to this…"

Rockman gave the two a rather you're-always-requesting-for-anything look and turned to his twin. However, he was rather eager for fight these days. Hell, he didn't have a good fight for a long time, excluding his battle with Blues. Yet again, he was getting bored and trying to search for other awesome navi to battle. He wanted to get stronger, and he saw the opportunity. But all of this would not go only to his decision—his operator must agree in order to do this. "What do you think Netto…?"

A grin was formed upon his lips, finally letting off his frustration out of some information about a tourney. "Let's go for it, Rockman!" Netto's eyes were full of spirit as he stated. Rockman smiled and turned to the red-caped navi, who was waiting for their answer.

"We're going for the tournament!" Both of them shouted. Archer blinked and smirked. His hand was still gripping the chip tightly. Lazily, he threw the chip towards the blue navi. Rockman was rather amazed—despite giving him the chip rather lazily, Archer had thrown the chip, hard, as if wishing for the chip not to left his hand.

"That chip was the proof as the entrant of the 'tournament'. Let me tell you the rules…" Archer said as he coughed to straighten up his voice. Rockman could only chuckle at how childish the red-caped navi looked. He stopped chuckling though, after receiving a piercing death glare especially for the blue navi. "The Holy Grail War had been attended for years, and was recently added as a battle tournament for net-navi. Unlike other battle tourney, this 'tournament' only consisted of 7 Operators each with a special chip marking them as entrants. The KanshouBakuya chip is one example of that special chip, which marks you as entrants."

"In the Holy Grail War 'tournament'…" archer paused as he saw Rockman was deep in his own thought, almost leaving them.

Rockman was rather suspicious at how Archer had been implying the word 'tournament' all over, as though the Holy Grail war is not supposed to be a tournament. The thought made him wondered and hurt as he could feel a hand smacking down his head, sending him off his muse. "OUCH!"

"You might want to hear the rules if you want to join. Kids these days…" Archer mumbled. He stepped backwards and crossed his arms. This time, he was rather pissed at how easy Rockman took this. He had hoped the navi would have much more, ehm, patience for hearing the rest of the rules. Yet, Rockman was not Archer, and he had not been designed to withstand any speech with almost unlimited amount of concentration like Archer. "Those seven chips are proof of the entrants. So the condition to become a winner is to have all the chips."

"Also, the 'tourney' itself will exist as long as there hasn't been any winner. You will have to fight until you drop. And also… we might inform you this a bit later, but…" Archer said as he eyed his operator. Rin sighed as she threw her face away, seemingly pissed at what Archer is going to say. Archer rolled his eyes as eh continued. "We want you to destroy the prize…"

Silence…

Netto blinked several times, trying to digest the information in the words. "And why should I do that?" Netto asked confused and annoyed at the same time. He folded his hands. 'These people happens to be the most annoying people ever bother me in my life… they have so many request!' Netto thought annoyed. If they're going for the battle to destroy something, why can't the people do that their selves!

Rin rolled her eyes again as she calmly sipped her tea. "It's of no importance to you…" she said. Archer nodded as agreement to his master.

"You're not going to have us participate in the tourney then. I don't need the stupid chip if you're not going to tell me what the prize is… Rockman, Let's go…" Netto said. Rockman nodded, signing his agreement and threw the chip away. The chip landed smoothly in front of Archer, which was down-rightly pissed by his action. Mustering all the patience he had, he coolly picked the chip and gripped upon it tightly. Rin saw how the blue navi has angered her own Net-navi. Seeing nothing can be done except for talking about the prize with the participant, Rin sighed and started talking coldly.

"What if I said, the prize would be too dangerous as it could destroy the world within one's grasp?"

Netto's ears perked as he turned back to the black-haired teen. His eyes showing curiosity over knowing what will be of the prize. "What's that?"

Archer sighed as her master started to open her words. "The one who will stand on top of the 6 other entrants would be entitled as the great King of the Net and granted a free wish. However, this wish would cause the normal server and the Under Net server to malfunction… the worst part is, to attain the wish itself, you must summon the 'Grail'—which is going to grant one wish you have—sacrificing the other 6 navis, possibly the whole Net Navi community… You're going to let that, Hikari Netto, Rockman?"

Rockman eyed the red-caped man sternly. "Give it a break... why would I believe you, knowing the officials like would handle this better than a 12th grader?" He eyed Archer as if trying to kill the red-caped navi with one look. However, Archer seemed not to take the stare affine him as he knew something like this could happen, now or later.

"Because—" Before Archer could speak more, Rin had downloaded a silence program to her Net Navi. White fabric glowed over his neck, closing his mouth, silencing the red-caped navi for a while. Archer was babbling silently behind the fabric, eyes lied at the raven-haired teen. His vein popped, signing his annoyance. Rockman gaped at how easy Rin did that without asking the net navi whether it's fine, or not.

"Netto, Serenade was the one who asked you this request. Would you do it?"

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"Here lies the Sword of the Kings, the Holy Sword Excalibur." Saber said straightly. Both of them had arrived in front of a hill, tattered with broken shield and sword. On top of the hill, the Holy Sword Excalibur was tugged to the ground, emanating some sort of mysterious aura, as though calling for its next wielder.

For Saber, the place had reminded her on how easy she defeated a thousand viruses with that blade—and how easy she'd seen Serenade—one of her comrades—dying in front of her as Forte killed his copy in the real world. What the King had wished was simple—the Excalibur. Excalibur was the only sword for her, and she knew someday that the sword must leave her as she search for another worthy leader, even though it might take years.

For Blues, The time was pacing very slowly as he stepped forwards. Several times, he turned his head around, seeing dead viruses and junk data, probably after Saber's clean-up duty. And every time he saw those junk data, it didn't fail to make him shiver at how powerful the lady-knight navi is. Each step, he felt heavy, as though there's some godly power at work, pressuring him.

Finally, they reached the top of the hill. There, the Excalibur was plunged to the ground. Saber walked carefully towards the sword and stood behind it. Blues followed her no longer as he was mesmerized by the golden shine The Excalibur had inflicted upon him. The grandeur of the sight—even Enzan was wholly amazed and dazzled by how beautiful a sword on the stone could be. But they did not only dazzled by the view. The aura of the sword had dazzled them, just like Muramasa had. The aura was legendary.

"Blues… Move closely and take the sword…" Saber ordered—or rather asked the sword-based navi. Her voice was surprisingly soft for a hard-headed navi like her. She pointed her left hand to the Excalibur. "It had been Serenade's will. Hell, I've never thought even one second to leave the sword out to another person. Yet again, he BEGGED me. On the second he left the Muramasa to you, I agree to him to take you as the next wielder, however…"

"Are you worthy to receive the sword, Blues?"

Those words made Blues wandered. Had Serenade really wanted to entrusted something's not his? What had he seen in Blues potential that made him received not only one, but two legendary swords? Had Serenade over-thought this all over?

Blues remained silent but he stepped forward, placing his hand upon the hilt. He was about to take out the sword, but something inside him stopped him, as though something big would turn out. Yes, Blues for the first time in his calculation was reluctant. His programming should have disabled the feeling long time ago, but something about the sword made him humble—as though he was just other people, too little for some legendary sword to be his, even though the King himself 'wished' him to be the rightful wielder.

"Whatever happens after this, we'll talk about that later."

Blues was rather startled as his operator was entering the Full Synchro. He admitted—he was deeply in thought. He didn't realize that Enzan had forced himself to synchronize. And right then, still gripping upon the hilt of the sword, Enzan was trying to lift up his morale high. "Serenade had entrusted us his will… let's respect him by receiving it, fully…"

"Of course, sir!" Blues nodded. Slowly, both of them gripped the hilt tight and pulled the sword from the stone. At first, the stone won't budge—not even an inch. However, Blues was not panic as he knew something like this would have happened. He sighed, knowing that he's not the chosen one. Saber rolled her eyes and turned away in disappointment. "And I really expect much from you…" she whispered sadly.

Blues sighed and let off his grip. He lowered his hand, eyeing it rather annoyed. "The person is not me… yet, why do I feel…" Blues whispered silently and blinked. Slowly, he summoned the broken blade Muramasa which was glowing brightly. The Excalibur in front of him was resonating with broken blade. He eyed the blade one by one and realized his crest also glowed. "Enzan-sama!"

"_Strange… I felt… relieved…"_ Enzan whispered in his head. Blues knew what his operator meant. A surge of calm and relieving waves resonated within them, giving the perfect harmony that even Blues had to close his eyes and stopped in the tides of the world—and found himself standing in an unknown place…

Blues blinked. 'When did I ever get here??" Blues muttered. Seconds later, he realized Enzan was not with him. "Enzan-sama?" Blues asked to nobody, as he knew it was a deserted place. The place itself was nothing more than a part of Under Net. Yet, it seemed the Under Net itself was still under construction, which drew Blues to a conclusion that this Under Net was supposed to be in the past—if that's possible. If it's true, than what he's seeing was only a Vision Burst (A/N: I'm taking this from Mega Man BN 5: Team ProtoMan.).

"Saber, it is I who walk upon your door…"

Blues turned to the sudden voice, eyes-widened as he saw the King of the Under Net stand on the ground—not actually floating. Serenade was particularly standing patiently, expecting something to turn out. Seconds later, there's a blinding light as the dimension in front of Serenade was tore, revealing a certain knight-like navi. Her long hair appeared to be braided, making her more knightly than womanly. Her eyes were more blazing than he had ever imagined.

"What is it that you want, Serenade?" Saber.EXE asked the king coldly. Blues could tell, even though how cold her voice was, he knew she knew what Serenade was going to say, and ask.

Serenade started with a sigh. Looking away, he asked. "It might not be in my place, but there is this kid that I ask you to protect with all your might… after I'm gone…"

Saber turned rigid and her expression hardened. She crossed her arms and spoke again, "What is it that made you fascinated about this kid? Any kid would never even make you curios over anything… and I don't think you, of all people, are going to die in the near future…" her eyes were stern and serious. She was taking this as a joke—a cruel joke. No way in hell Serenade would ask her over anything bearable.

Serenade smirked. "He deserved the Muramasa…"

"…I see…" Saber muttered. She released her arm-crossing and lied on the side of the already-torn dimensional gate. "You've seen much in him, that I will believe you. However, what made you think you'll die in the near future…?"

Serenade turned to the sky, seeing nothing but circuits. "I really want… to see the moon up close. Yet, I never get any chance… and I'll never will…" Serenade said grimly but managed to smile. He turned to the knight-navi, who was still trying to catch the sentences. Serenade rolled his eyes as he stared deeply to the knight. "And also, I want you to see the boy… if he's well enough in your standard, I BEGGED you to consider him as a candidate. The Holy Grail War might have ended 11 years ago, knowing you—no, _King Arthur_ along with her _master _had ended its existence. Yet, you too are very well aware that so long as the darkness rises, so will the grail—and the network is no exception…"

Saber lifted an eyebrow. "You've researched a lot, haven't you?" Saber sighed and rolled her eyes. "I haven't planned for any successor, but I can start from your choice…" She said. Serenade smiled happily and was about to talk more, but the knight navi in front of him had pointed her finger on him, eyes went stern. "However, that gives me the authority to test the boy out… Is that just?"

Serenade smirked and nodded. "I owed you much, King Arthur…" he said. Saber went red as she summoned kunais and practically threw it at the king. The King dodged it gracefully, smile still on his face as he faded with a 'log out'. Afar, Blues watched the place and recorded everything he saw. However, his action was interrupted as Blues' surrounding blurred into thousands of color, replaced by the present image of the Under Net. He was rigid, not noticing how he had held his breath. He closed his eyes, searching for his operator deep in his mind… "Enzan-sama…"

However, what he could hear and feel was Enzan's ragged breathing, as though he had been running for miles, chased by some sort of calamity. Hearing this concerned Blues, as he knew that Under Net has many effect, both to the operator and the navi—something Blues had never tried, not when his OP's life at stake. Everything concerning yourself would be at stake if you're messing with the Under Net.

"_What…was that all about…?_" Blues could hear his operator whispered within his consciousness. That's it—Enzan was not alright at all. Blues decided to disconnect him quickly, but some of his programming—the program to disconnect his operator—had been rewritten, by Enzan himself.

"_Don't you ever think to disconnect me again…"_ Enzan scowled angrily as he tried to slow his breathing down. "G_ee Blues, I'm fine… just some scary vision, on to the sword…" _Enzansaid as he focused down to business, consciousness drifting to the back of Blues' mind. Blues nodded silently as he eyed the Muramasa blade in his hand. Blankly, he squatted down beside the Excalibur and plunged it to the stone. He prayed… and got on to his feet, hands gripping the hilt of the Excalibur…

…And it budged…

Blues smirked victoriously as he drew the sword out. Its golden shine felt like heaven as it blessed the new keeper. The sword continued to shine, not failing to make the past-wielder turned, as she was mesmerized by the view itself. Saber seemed rather dumb-struck but she smirked gladly, as she knew the navi and his operator has more than meets the eye. And so, the Excalibur had chosen its wielder.

"…_Had Serenade always known… that the sword will choose us…?_"

To be continued…

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A/N: Okay… I made Shiro looks genius… What? It's not like he's dumb or anything!! People could be genius if they tries, and Shiro is one of them!

This fic is getting to me… Um, okay… I know my writing skills are not getting better… PLEASE DON'T SUE ME! A little flame might be appreciated, as long as it doesn't break my heart… Err, Review??


	3. Nightmare or Premonition?

Fate/digital battle

By: shinigami-no-elie

A crossover anime of Fate/stay night and Rockman.exe…

**Disclaimer: Fate projects and Rockman.exe do not belong to me. Any similarities of plot or OC names are purely coincidental…**

**Summary**: 5 years after the damnation of the Cyber Beasts, Hikari Netto had been through several unlucky events, until he met a part-time merchant giving a huge discount for a battle chip he had searched all over. Ijuuin Enzan realized his life had been rather dull, until a mysterious knight-like navi showed up, challenging him. They don't know that all of these events will only lead to something more complicated—The Holy Grail War.

* * *

**Part III**

**Nightmare or Premonition?**

"Serenade asked me to?" Netto blinked several times. His temper went low in the mention of the King of the Under Net. However, his eyes was now showing suspicion, as he knew—or literally, guessed—that one as powerful as Serenade would never asked for any help. Hell, as the King he should have the power to do what he wanted to do. Literally saying, if one said that the King had asked somebody to do something, the world should have collapsed in any moment. "Serenade never asked people out of anything…"

Rin rolled his eyes. Archer was still writhing angrily upon the fabric covering his mouth, apparently shutting him from talking anything. Rin, for some reasons beyond her knowing, found it rather entertaining and decided to leave him alone. Her eyes traveled to the now-confused Netto. "Trust me, he did… I was, after all, a hacker in the Under Net. I happened to be the 3rd best hacker—but I'm not in the ranks—before the officials caught me researching without license and recruited me as an officials. Yet, even the King was curious about us and we've been friends ever since…" Rin closed her eyes as she recalled the memories. "I can't even understand why he would bother to ask me to entrust you the KanshouBakuya chip in the first place. You're a whiner…"

"You're the one with so many requests…" Rockman scowled bluntly. "To tell you the truth, the whole shipment thing was rather suspicious. First you asked us, and then some weird viruses started attacking us. Archer was observing us after all. Are you two setting this up for your purpose? I don't like the way you do that."

Rin grinned, almost coldly. "Exactly. I want to know why a mere 12th grader like you would earn Serenade's trust, even after we bound it for over 5 years. How far he had predicted? How far he had seen this, long before it could happen? Why Serenade asked me to enroll you in the war while he knew he could ask me to do so…? Everything I did until now is to answer those questions, yet you've proven me only half of them…"

Rin sighed as she set off the program applied to her navi. Archer was rather pissed and turned to his operator angrily. However, Rin just ignored him completely. "There's nothing more for me to do. If you changed your mind, contact me, and I'll give you the chip. I'm just doing a friend's wish, and I don't think I'm doing it pretty good. Oh, Archer had already sent my e-mail to you…" She sighed. "Let's log out, Archer. I don't have time now for your rambling…" she said depressed as her screen went off. Archer nodded, though his face was pissed, not only because of the last thing his operator do, but how the operator and the net navi in front of him made his operator feel. Glaring daggers, he disappeared with a log out, Leaving the blue navi wandered with thoughts.

"Hey Netto-kun…" Rockman said reluctantly. He stopped at first as he heard his operator sighed. Slowly, he continued, "I think it's rude to turn down an invitation to a tourney, don't you think so?"

Netto grinned to his twin. "You know what, I think you're right! It's not everyday we'll get any free tournament entry! More importantly, getting any EXTRAORDINARY chip by signing in!

Get the e-mail written, Rockman. We're ready for battle!"

* * *

1.00pm

Tohsaka's Residence

"Rin, an e-mail…"

Rin ignored Archer's call. Archer sighed at how his master reacted and can't help to open it without his master's permission.

Rin was lying on her bed, staring blankly on the lamp she didn't bother to switch off, despite the sun shone outside. As usual, Rin had left her lamps in her room on, despite's Archer's rambling about saving energy in the daylight. Lazily, she put her pillow over head, recalling how Serenade had asked them his might-be last favor…

Rin shook her head. She didn't want to remember, not after she hadn't fulfilled his wish. "Damn… at this rate, even Serenade is going to haunt me forever…"Rin scowled displeased as she buried her head under the pillow.

Staring at his operator, Archer sighed. "Rin, good news… the boy agreed."

Rin's eyes widened as she turned to her Net Navi disbelievingly. However, her face showed happiness, as she knew that she had succeeded.

* * *

2.00pm

Enzan's office

Enzan stared blankly at the chip in his hand. The chip glittered in the sunlight, as though dancing in his very hand. The picture of Excalibur was engraved in its cover. "This is no ordinary chip…"

While musing, Blues had appeared in his desktop, looking at him with concern, as he knew his master never day-dreamed over something. Then again, the chip his OP was holding was only one of a kind—one of seven others which were special.

_**Flashback**_

"_Congrats, Blues… the Excalibur had chosen you. You must be proud. Not only the sword chose you as its wielder, but you've proven yourself to me that you're worth Serenade's will…" Saber said, smile engraved in her lips. However, it soon turned into a frown as she continued. "However, you have to know that there are 7 chips of the legendary colossal weapon exist in the world. The Holy Sword Excalibur was one of them. Until his last breath, Serenade had managed to find 2 of them—the Holy Sword Excalibur and the Twin Sword Kanshou and Bakuya. 5 others had been kept hidden for years. No one knows where they are…"_

_Blues lifted an eyebrow confused. "Why are you telling me this?" He asked._

_Saber sighed as the red-toned navi become oblivious. She couldn't blame him, though as he knew nothing of the tragic event that had happened before long ago. "Those 7 chips are the proof of entrants as the Holy Grail War participants. Once you've gotten yourself chosen by the sacred weapon, you'll be registered as entrants… and that goes to you, as you have been chosen by the sword."_

_Blues became more confused, but tried hard to process the idea and guessed what the knight navi's intention is. "Let me guess… I should enter the war, since I'm already chosen as an entrant. What should I do now? This is also part of a dead man wish… I might as well finish the business…"_

"_This one is not about Serenade's request anymore…" Saber said sternly as she crossed her arms. Blues glared at her, wishing the navi to spit what's in her mind. "It's mine, personally from me, as a previous wielder of the Excalibur. Feel free to back out…"_

"_You know we can't, not after we receive the sword…" Blues sneered as he down the Excalibur and transformed it into chip._

_Saber rolled her eyes and looked at them with the same raging eyes Blues saw earlier in the Vision Burst. "You are to win the Holy Grail War and destroy the prize…"_

…

"_What?"_

_**End of Flashback**_

Saber's words still echoed in Enzan's mind. How she had described the Holy Grail, how she described the one wish that could throw everything out of order, how she told him the risks, how she gave him the anti-bug easily—everything she said seemed to plague his mind. It annoyed Enzan, as he knew he had more paper work to do than before, which he could only do if he is in his focus state. However, every time he started signing the papers, the thought only drifted to the navi's explanation, and how easily he entered the Holy Grail 'War'.

"Enzan-sama, the papers…"

Enzan blinked as he saw Blues was actually in his desktop, setting his screen on top. Enzan sighed as he buried himself in the mountainous pile of paper works to do. Yet again, his thoughts dwelled on the certain blonde navi. "ARGGGHH! It's making me crazy!!!" he suddenly shouted depressed.

Blues couldn't help himself but jerked off several meters from the screen. His operator had never acted this way. Then again, he's still a human—something beyond one's knowing is more than enough to put him or her under a lot off stress. He shook his head rather pitifully as he asked, "Enzan-sama, maybe a stroll along the town would relax you a bit, sir."

Enzan lifted his head to see a clearer view of his own Net-Navi. "Maybe I'll bump on to a strong operator…" he muttered quite loudly, as Blues heard him, even a bit fuzzy. "Good suggestion, Blues. Let's go…"

"Yes, Sire!" Blues said, as his programming told him to do so. The screen went off as Blues returned to the PET via cable attached to the port. In the background, Enzan could see the anti-bug was searching for threat of bugs. Enzan skimmed the report and smiled satisfied. Then, he picked up his PET and walked out his office, leaving a deserted office.

* * *

1.15pm

A hotel near Netopia Square

"Wow… she really uploaded the chip in her e-mail. And again, I can not check her IP address…" Rockman muttered. Just then, Netto bounced off his bed and sat in front of his computer. His desk was full with chips—apparently, Netto decided that he need to modify his deck for the 'War'.

"What does she say in the reply e-mail, Rock-kun?"

Rockman sighed, "She said that we're being rude to her and asked us an apology…" by the time he said the sentences, a vein popped on Netto's head. Rockman knew what would happen and sweat-dropped as Netto's eyes went big, angry face hovering over the screen.

"ARGHHH! THAT WOMAN IS SO THICK-HEADED!" Netto screamed as he scanned through his jumbled chips harshly. He picked the Django D chip and 3 Spreader2 P-Q- chips and put it into his pack. "Why does she always comment over anything!!!?" Netto yelled again, this time he harshly picked a SprVulcan S and put it in his pack.

Rockman coughed in attempt to get Netto's attention, and he did very well. "Anyway, she also attaches a program in the e-mail. Want to open it?"

Netto, for once, had to shake his head. Yet, he was curious of the program he had been given. Is it suppose to be some pranks the woman had pulled or an entrusted program Serenade used before long ago? All the thoughts were swirling together in his head as he silently nodded in curiosity. Rockman, seeing his twin brother, nodded in confirmation.

Rockman rolled his eyes and went blank as he analyzed the data. "Scanning for any abnormalities… zero percent…" Rockman stated blankly as he scanned the file. "Opening the file now… Done…" Rockman said finally and blinked. "Wow! It's a bug-eradicator program!"

Netto eyes went big as he heard the program. "That's one of the coolest programs on earth!! You could delete a buggy single virus or NetNavi in a shot…! Cool!! I'll install it now!!" Netto said happily as he opened the NaviCust program in his PET and carefully put the program in place. Examining here and there, Netto smiled as he thought there's nothing wrong with his programming. "…Done…" He said as he clicked on the RUN button. Several seconds later, Rockman appeared on the screen, light-headed at first. "How do you feel, Rock?"

Rockman yawned and stretched his arms and legs. "Never better… In fact, I felt almost invincible!" Rockman grinned. Netto nodded relieved to know his Net Navi was okay and his programming hadn't rusted yet. His eyes flew over the pack readied for the war.

"Rockman, what kind of enemies are we going to face?" Netto asked but his eyes still gazed upon the deck he's using for the war. "Are they going to be heartless and cold, knowing only the sense of pride? Are they going to be so ignorant that they'll use every attempt to stop us? Or are they going to fight with honor above anything else?" his hand was grasping the deck; the battle sensation was flowing through his veins.

"Netto-kun… you know which ever the type, we'll rush through them… you know that better yourself, don't you?" Rockman assured. He knew, even sometimes, that Netto needed a morale boost. Netto was not going into a battle. They're going for a war, and right now, Rockman knew they could be attacked anytime.

Netto nodded as he threw himself to the bed. "You're right, Rockman. Why am I worried that much…" He yawned as his eyes felt so heavy. "Hey Rock…"

"Yes, brother?"

"Wake me up at 4pm… I want to go…" he yawned, threw his self to the bed. His eyes closed as he went to the dreamland. "…for a stroll…"

Rockman smirked as he saw his operator slumped to his sleep. "Have a rest, Netto-kun. You know you earned that…" Rockman smiled as he put himself to sleep mode.

* * *

2.30pm

Densan City Park

Enzan walked through the streets of Densan City. First reason, he didn't have his limousine and packs of bodyguard with him—he practically slipped out from them. Second reason, he found that walking could be much fun without others to watch over him. Third reason, his sense told him that he would meet a strong Net-Battler.

…Fourth reason; Enzan was having a problem with the broken Muramasa…

Enzan knew that the red-toned navi had been utilized to use sword-based chips. However, Excalibur—even he could tell—was not just a normal sword-based chip. Before strolling, he attempted to summon the Excalibur and the sword would appear invisible. He tried again but only to have Blues' energy drained.

Enzan found himself walking across a small park for children. Subconsciously, He stepped towards the nearest bench next to a vending machine, thoughts about the sword still swirling in his head. He bought a coke, sat and sighed as he drank a quarter of it. Pulling out the PET, he called over his Net-Navi. "Blues, how is the reservation energy going?" Enzan asked.

As usual, the red-toned navi only gave his operator a straight and monotone sound of confirmation and obedience. "It's going well, Enzan-sama. I've managed to reserve my energy up to 85 to anticipate enemy's attack."

Enzan nodded relieved. His thoughts were now wondering on what he should do with the not-yet-mastered the legendary sword. Hell, Enzan thought handling the Excalibur is 10 times more difficult than the Muramasa.

"And Saber.EXE destroyed the Muramasa with a tracing blade…" Enzan said blankly. He stared blankly at the street, almost not realizing the fact that the coke in his hand was not cold any longer. He paid no heed of the drink, as he realized one thing he had said before. "What is a tracing blade…?" Enzan muttered and let a low growl as he realized he hadn't eaten anything yet.

"I think you need to eat, Enzan-sama…" Blues said straight-forwardly, not wanting the dual-haired operator getting the chronic stomachache. Blues remembered that last time, Enzan had to be brought to the hospital because of some stomachache—what made him jump is the fact that Enzan was mere inch from suffering a chronic disease. Since then, Blues had always reminded him of not having lunch/breakfast/dinner late.

"He often pointed out the obvious, didn't he…?" Enzan thought amused as he glanced over his PET. Blues, eyes behind his visor, stared back at his operator.

"Is something wrong, Enzan-sama…?" Blues said, again, straightly. Enzan couldn't help but remain silence. Enzan thought that his navi was rather… too obedient. Then again, Enzan had programmed him to do so. Still, there's 1 chance of Blues acting on his will—autonomic action. If this 'obedience' was still one with the core program which Enzan created it as the base program for Blues.EXE, Enzan would not be bothered, as it's something he designed. However, something seemed to hit on him, As though Blues.EXE was going on his own. Blues could be obedience, but right now, his obedience was not like any other days he'd spent, as though he was hiding something.

"Tell me Blues, you've used 30 minutes in order to charge up to the max… I've designed you that way…" Enzan said, still staring at the red-toned navi. "However, you reported me 85 percent only. Where's the other 15?"

Enzan might not realize, but Blues was rather taken aback by his operator's question. For a split second, Blues went panic—then again, his face showed no sign of it and remained stern as usual. "I haven't checked my entire system sire… But I suspected the 15 amount of energy lost was due to the radical bug earlier in the Under Net events, Sir."

Enzan sighed—his navi was lying. "I've checked your entire system and found nothing wrong. Nothing, Blues. Your program was supposed to work just fine…" Enzan rolled his eyes and turned cold. "What are you up to…?"

For the first time, Blues wished his operator was not so damn sharp. At this rate, even Blues had to reveal the truth as he felt the daggers from his Operator's glare, chilling him down to his spine. "I… was trying to master The Excalibur, sire… and it cost me 15 of the reserved energy..."

Enzan lifted an eyebrow in sign of amusement. He should have known though, even without his command, Blues was doing something as though having a 'will'. True, Navis have a 'will', but the 'will' couldn't make decision for their selves, unless the navi is an auto-navi. "I never remembered of ordering you such things, Blues… Why did you do that then?"

Blues rolled his eyes under the black visor stuck to his helm; his head was hung down as he felt rather terrible about acting out of his Operator's order. "I am so sorry, Sir… I'll make sure that won't happen again…"

"You're not answering the question… Why do you do that?" Enzan said flatly, almost sarcastically. His grip tightened around the coke he was drinking on. His eyes were still glaring towards the red-toned navi who was taken aback by the last question.

Knowing that something like this would turn out, Blues sighed after observing how much his Operator reacted—little amused, as he had expected this before. "I just feel it… right, to master The Excalibur. Only summoning and using it to the level where it's still invisible is practically suicide, as we both knew this is war, Enzan-sama. The enemies wouldn't be as easy as before—not after getting the other 6 colossal chips. We'll have to be ready for any surprise attacks or any dirty tricks that other participants use…"

"I'm well aware about that Blues… yet, if you pushed yourself too hard, you can end up deleted…" Enzan said softly. Blues was working on this alone, and he felt that he was left behind. He picked the PET and saw the red-toned navi's demeanor—as straight as usual. "It'd be hard to build you all over again, since it wouldn't be the same… even with my genius programming. Don't push yourself too hard, got that?" Enzan smirked.

Blues was astounded at how his master turned out now. He had never expected that his master would be rather worried, especially when Enzan could repair him easily if he got deleted. Hell, he's Blues.EXE operator. Of course, while taken aback, he still replied. "Understood, sir!"

"Good…" Enzan nodded. But his face turned grim almost instantly—someone was watching over them. If not for the killing intention the watcher had radiated, Enzan would mistaken him/her as an ordinary people. Yet, something from the spy seemed to fascinate him.

"Looks like we got company…" Enzan whispered to his NetNavi. Blues nodded as he also detected a presence great power although he's not in the Net. "Not only that… It seems he has a chip… the colossal chip…" Enzan said again as he shook his head to pinpoint the location where exactly is the stalker. "Even if he doesn't have the chip, I'll have to know who had been spying on me…"

"Enzan-sama…" Enzan heard his NetNavi whispered and turned back to his PET. "Maybe we should leave to less disturbing areas, that is, if you want to fight right now, sir…" Blues suggested. Enzan nodded as he pulled the PET and went over to a small corridor with an end. The more he entered, the dark corridor, the more he could feel the killing intention. Enzan stopped as he meet a dead end.

Eyes slit angrily, Enzan glared at his back exactly at the entrance of the corridor. "Show yourself, coward…"

The spy saw this and showed himself. Mint haired teenager appeared on the entrance wearing a green shirt and green pants used for job. A tie was attached down to his chest. Wearing his usual red hat, Laika appeared expressionlessly, almost as if fully drowned from emotional expression despite the fact that he had been working together with him. The PET was in his grip.

Speechless, Enzan stared at the mint-haired Net Savior, wondering how on earth Laika participate the war. "Laika?"

* * *

Netto was running in his dream. Darkness painted his surroundings, giving him the calamitous atmosphere. Netto may have save the world many times, but there are still many things that made him scared under his usually cheerful smile: loneliness and darkness. And the worst scenario is, he was in both situations.

"Rockman… Saito-niisan… where are you…" Netto cried silently between his breathes as he ran into seemingly endless world of darkness. Every time Netto turned his head around, he only saw blackness and it made him run faster, trying to find anything—anything but the current darkness he's seeing now. He stopped and panted hard, eyes was going to water as he was plunged to despair. However, no matter how desperate the situation is, this is Netto we're talking about—and this particular 12th-grader-net-savior brunette is not good at one thing: giving up.

"I must keep going… there's must be an end to this place…" Netto sobbed as he straightened his view. Netto ran again, each step inviting chills upon his spine until the point he stopped and turned rigid just like a stone—in front of him was a statue of seven Navis—Netto could deduct the fact since they're all have Navi mark and cyber-like person.

"What… are these… doing here?" Netto asked to nobody in particular, signing awe at how perfect is the carving on the stone. Examining closely, he tried to identify the person—Netto was more comfortable to search for any name in the stone, but he found none so he decided to identify himself, no matter how absurd it would be.

Standing in front was a woman-knight navi with her sword plunged to the ground. Dressed in silver knight armor, her quiet and stern demeanor proved her beauty and unwavering devotion. Her eyes were green, just like emeralds in the depth of darkness. Her hand rested firmly at the hilt and looked sternly upon the horizon. Back on her right side was Archer.EXE, holding the Twin Blade Kanshou and Bakuya. As usual, he wore the same red cape he used that day, although his headphone was tilted to his right a bit. Even though he was supposed to be in a fighting stance, the blades were lowered down to the level where he only holds them loosely.

Back on the knight's left side was a woman with long hair, head hung down, wearing a visor. Violet in tone, her demeanor seemed to be elegant; however, as Netto inspected the statue closely, he changed his mind as he saw the woman was holding peg with one of its end attached to a chain. That time, Netto thought of her as a psychopath.

Next to the woman with the peg, a woman dressed in cloak radiating some sort of mystical aura. Something about her made him shiver, either because of the weird aura emanating from the figure or simply because the woman fully wore a cloak with her navi mark on her knotting. He could only see half of her face though.

On Archer's left side stood a long-haired man dressed in somewhat traditional Japanese attire for samurais—yet, in the same time, it fitted perfectly for him as Navi. He was holding a long blade and was going to slash anything in his way. Next to the mysterious lady, a giant stood with his club on his shoulder, eyeing his surroundings as though searching for prey. The last person was standing next to the Samurai, having a spear as his weapon. Blue in tone, the lance man seemed enjoying fighting more than the others. His smirk reminded Netto about someone crazy enough to destroy the man—the one person he'd beaten 3 times.

Netto found inspecting the stone in front of him is more fascinating than whining about the darkness surrounding him. After all, he did find something interesting. However, all of that shattered as the statues crumbled with a loud explosion, sending Netto reeling back. Netto squint his eyes to identify who had destroyed the statues right in front of him. His eyes widened as he saw the infamous superior auto-navi. His eyes were gleaming with greed—scarier than before. His smirk remained sarcastic and vile as ever.

"Forte!" Netto gasped in horror as he tried to stand. What he hadn't realized was the fact that the navi had stepped forward in front of him and squeezed Netto's neck. Split seconds later, Netto's attempt to stand becomes his desperate attempt to breathe as he felt his body was lifted by the auto-navi. Even with eyes almost shut tight, Netto could still see him mouthing words…

"_The Holy Grail is MINE!!_"

Those words seemed to hit him hard. Netto was now grasping for air. His lung was screeching for oxygen, while Forte gripped his neck tighter and tighter. At this rate, breaking Netto's neck would be as easy as breaking a young twig. Netto was going to reach his limit. What he hated the most now is the fact that the last thing he saw was going to be that vile smirks—one thing he detested the most.

"Niisan…" Netto felt light-headed as the suffocation began cutting his oxygen supply to his brain. "I'm sorry…" he silently whispered, hoping his brother would hear him—hoping his navi to hear him. His eyelid closed, but behind it he could saw a light, rushing through even to his eyelids. He felt his neck loosened from Forte's grip and heard him cursing all the way. Seconds later, he could not feel a thing except a gentle hand, caressing his head.

"_Don't let him get the grail, Netto…"_

"W…ke ..p, …tto"

"…tto… kun… Netto-kun…"

"NETTO-KUN!!"

Netto heard his navi's voice indistinctly and opened his eyes slowly—surprisingly slowly despite the loud yell of his navi. Netto slowly sat on the bed side, eyes still showing confusion and fright. Adding his surprise, he could feel his neck sore, like he was strangled before. "…Just like… the dream…" Netto whispered silently, hoping that his nightmare didn't catch up to him just like the grim reaper catch up his about-to-die prey.

"Netto-kun! Are you alright?"

Netto was rather startled by the concerned voice of his blue Net-Navi. Almost immediately, he turned to the side of his bed and met the blue navi's concerned eyes, and realized how he made his twin brother worried. Netto only smiled—more like grinned—trying to ensure that he's alright. "I'm alright, Rockman. Just some dreams… It'll go away in time…"

If Rockman did not know his brother better, he would simply sigh relieved at Netto's expression. So, instead of relieved, he was bothered at why Netto, his own twin brother, hid something from him. The fact that Netto was shivering a little was enough for Rockman to tell that Netto's nightmare was indeed frightful. If only He could materialize in the real world and just help him ease the pain…

"Netto… you're not alright… what have bothered you…?"

Netto didn't speak. He remained silent as long as he could until Rockman pleaded him again—a desperate plea. "Please, Netto… I wish to help you, but the way you are right now… I couldn't be of any help…"

Netto, who had reached his limit of not telling his brother the frightful dream, sighed long. He held his head low. "I dreamt… that I was… strangled…" Netto gripped his neck softly—how it felt so real for him, still freshly engraved in his mind. Shutting his eyes, he couldn't bear the feeling he's at now.

Rockman's eyes showed sympathy. Again, he really wanted to materialize right there so that he could sit next to and comfort him, right then. Yet, even with the most advanced technology exist in the world; the only thing crossed his mind was the CopyBot. But they didn't bring it with them during the holiday—they won't need it anyway. "Netto…"

There's a long pause between the two brothers, until Netto cleared his throat. "It was Forte… who… strangled me…" Netto said stuttering as he viewed his hand, trembling slightly. "I… thought… I was going… to die…"

Rockman could only sit and watched painfully while his brother was hellish scare to death. How he wanted to pat his head again, comforting the scared Netto, just like old times. "It's okay… it was nightmare… it won't happen… I'm here for you…"

Netto heard his twin. "I know…" the brunette replied softly. Yes, he's not alone. He got Rockman with him and he would never let Forte do something such as that. Netto slowly smiled, even though it was still weak from what he had experienced. "Let's have some fresh air… I should do something to the nightmare nagging on the back of my brain…" Netto said almost weakly although covered with fake hype. The brunette took the PET and chained it to his belt. "Let's go, Rockman!"

Rockman smiled gladly, showing approval. However, there's something nagging his mind right about then although the small problem seemed to be minimum threat…

Was Netto's dream a kind of premonition?

Was that the sign that Rockman should double his guard in order to protect his twin?

Rockman might not know now, but everything about them would soon revolve so quickly… that he would not have the chance to realize it…

To be continued…

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**Next Chapter: Blood Fort Andromeda—when the Sniper Shoots**


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